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Doubt

'Doubt' is a 2008 American movie written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, based on his Pulitzer Prize winning  stage play 'Doubt: A Parable.' The film takes place in a Catholic elementary school  back in 1960s.
I watched Doubt for the second time with the hope of finding some clues, but doubt persists. Was the charming Father Flynn actually guilty of the things he had been accused of by the very strict and conservative parish school principal Sr. Aloysius? Or was it just the Sister's sceptical attitude the cause of her accusation?

The Sister had her own reasons to dislike the Father, which was evident  during  conversations with him inside her room. She had put away sugar during lent and abstained from  it ever since, but the father asked three cubes for his tea. The sister hated ball point pens as she believed those would spoil the penmanship, but the Father carried one with him to write down the ideas for his sermons as and when they struck him. The sister hated uncut fingernails but the father kept his long. These might seem as  small things, but not for Sr. Aloysius, who made a student's nose bleed just for the crime of touching young Sr. James. 

My initial thoughts were that Father Flynn was innocent.  But then as I followed through  Sr. James' accidental  findings, doubt sprang up. Father Flynn might be covering up his guilt with his exceptional oratory skills, his progressive outlook and a charming demeanor.

Doubt is a delightful watch with catchy, intriguing dialogues and  exceptional performances by all the actors, Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Father Flynn, Amy Adams as the naive  Sr. James, and Viola Davis as the parent, Mrs. Miller. 

I guess Netflix threw up this movie for me because of Meryl Streep, but I couldn't find her in it. There was only Sr. Aloysius who broke down in the end with a load of doubts about the system she was part of.

Preetha Raj


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